


The Hogwarts Divination Letter

by Idle_Hans



Series: AU is a Measure of Distance [5]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Canon Divergent, Gen, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-25
Updated: 2020-06-25
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:35:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24903166
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Idle_Hans/pseuds/Idle_Hans
Summary: No-one knew why it started, and, more importantly, no-one knew how to stop it, but everyone blamed Sybill Trelawney.
Series: AU is a Measure of Distance [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1799656
Comments: 3
Kudos: 44





	1. Abstract

No-one knew why it started, and, more importantly, no-one knew how to stop it. Dismissing the woman certainly didn't fix anything, but everyone blamed Sybill Trelawney — even Albus Dumbledore.

Seven years after Madam Trelawney — nay, _Professor_ Trelawney, for that title is accurate: she _professed_ to know her subject — took up year-round residence in Hogwarts castle, a strange side-effect pervaded the magics which prepare and address the school's acceptance letters. Thereafter, upon cracking the seal of their letter, each prospective first-year experienced a brief and highly concentrated burst of precognition concerning the next seven years of their life should they choose to attend Hogwarts. Returning students were annually granted an updated brief for the remainder of their time at the school.

Unfortunately for the enrolment figures the information conveyed was, though accurate, somewhat selective. It was also entirely in keeping with Professor Trelawney's own penchant for making the direst prediction possible in any given circumstance.

At this point it is pertinent to relate that Cedric Diggory, aged eleven, bluntly informed his parents that he would willingly attend Hogwarts until the end of his OWLs, but not even under _Imperius_ would he return for a sixth year. In the chaotic aftermath of the 1994 Quidditch World Cup he hitched a ride with a family hurriedly portkeying home to Canada, where he faked his age upwards by three months and applied to Ilvermorny as an independent adult.

Little Sally-Anne Perks screamed blue murder at the mere suggestion of her getting on the train. _"I'm not going to be hushed up!"_ was all her parents could get out of her.

And from 1991 onwards, the acceptance rate of muggleborn children underwent a record drop.

Alas, the accusation of biased reportage to be laid against the new and unimproved Hogwarts letters must be doubled. Alongside the least pleasant consequences of a decision to attend Hogwarts, no information was given on the consequences of a decision not to attend at all.

In cases of particularly grim prognostication it was not even necessary to crack the seal. The mere sight of the Hogwarts crest in the wax was enough to trigger the Vision.


	2. Demonstration

Three things lay on the doormat: a postcard from Uncle Vernon’s sister Marge, who was vacationing on the Isle of Wight, a brown envelope that looked like a bill, and .... a letter for Harry. Harry picked it up and stared at it, his heart twanging like a giant elastic band. No one, ever, in his whole life, had written to him. Who would? He had no friends, no other relatives .... he didn’t belong to the library, so he’d never even got rude notes asking for books back. Yet here it was, a letter, addressed so plainly there could be no mistake:

 _Mr. H. Potter_  
_The Cupboard under the Stairs_  
_4 Privet Drive_  
_Little Whinging_  
_Surrey_

The envelope was thick and heavy, made of yellowish parchment, and the address was written in emerald-green ink. There was no stamp. Turning the envelope over, his hand trembling, Harry saw a purple wax seal bearing a coat of arms; a lion, an eagle, a badger, and a snake surrounding a large letter H. And as he gazed at it, Harry suddenly felt dizzy, and a welter of images flooded his mind:

> _..... He's standing in a dark and gloomy underground schoolroom surrounded by cauldrons. It's the very first lesson and he's being mocked and insulted by a teacher who's never met him but clearly hates him and just as clearly means to go on hating him. ...... A frightened boy falls off a broom and lands with the crunch of breaking bones. ...... He's slowly turning around to find himself facing a giant, growling, three-headed dog. ...... He's in a bathroom and a twelve foot high troll is about to club a girl to death. ...... He's high in the air, dangling by one hand from an out-of-control broom. ...... A boy right next to him cries out in pain as he's bitten by a young dragon. ...... He's in a forest at midnight. Something is drinking silver blood from a dead unicorn. There's a scream. The cloaked something stands up and rushes to attack. ...... The boy who was bitten by a dragon is smashed over the head by a giant chess-piece. ...... He's being strangled by a teacher with burning hands, while a strange and terrible voice shouts, "Kill him! Kill him!" ...... He's locked in Dudley's second bedroom, half-starved. ...... This time he's the one crashing off a broom with a broken arm. A teacher strips all the bones out of his arm entirely. ...... He's standing on a raised platform surrounded by other students. A large snake appears out of thin air right in front of him. It rears up, ready to attack. ...... He's completely surrounded by giant talking spiders who regard him as food. ...... He's desperately wielding a sword against a giant serpent whose head alone is larger than Harry's body. It bites him, and the venom burns in his veins. ...... It's moonrise, and a man in front of him is turning into a werewolf, while another man transforms into a great black demon dog. ...... He's on the ground, surrounded by tall thin monsters in tattered black cloaks. One of them has him gripped by the neck, and it's lowering its head to suck out Harry's very soul.. ...... There's a family of four people floating helpless in mid-air. They're being jerked around like puppets on strings, while a large crowd of people laugh and jeer at them. ...... He's been forced to compete in a contest against a fire-breathing dragon. He may be about to die, and the jeering crowd all think he cheated to enter. ...... He's invited a fellow student to share in his victory, only to watch them be murdered right beside him. ...... A man whose life Harry once saved, his parents' final betrayer, is slicing Harry's arm open as part of a ritual to resurrect the murderer. ...... He's fighting for his life against the man who killed his parents. The man's not completely human anymore. He has a face like a snake. ...... The soul eaters have followed him to Surrey. ...... He's in a show trial being prosecuted for an act of self-defence. ...... He's being reviled and slandered, both in the national press and in the corridors of his own school. ...... He told the truth to a sadistic teacher, and he's spending endless evenings writing "I must not tell lies" over and over, using a quill that cuts the words into his hand. He goes for help to another teacher. She tells him to keep his head down and endure it. ...... A battle in a basement. Children his own age around him are being seriously injured. A man once sentenced without trial to life imprisonment is thrown by a curse through a curtain. There's the sound of crazy laughter in the air. ...... The headmaster of the school is admitting without apology to having condemned Harry to live with people who would always hate him for what he is. ...... He's lying on the floor of a train, invisible and paralysed, as someone stomps on his face. ...... A girl is being pulled up into the air by a cursed necklace that makes her scream with pain as it cuts into her neck. ...... Harry has become the kind of person who would cast an unknown spell on another boy, cutting him open. The boy bleeds and bleeds and bleeds. ...... Zombies are all around him, overpowering him, dragging him towards a watery grave. ...... Innocent people are being rounded up. There are sudden disappearances. Countless small children are being lured to an unknown and terrible fate by the promise of learning magic. The government is sentencing innocent people on charges of impossible crimes. ...... Another giant snake is bursting out of the body of an old woman and launching itself at him, fangs at the ready. ...... He's trapped in an avalanche of cursed, burning-hot treasure. ...... A woman who tortures and murders for fun is hurling a cursed knife in his direction. It hits someone right next to him: a friend. ...... The school headmaster and a trusted confidant are discussing him. The one who always hated him, the one whose fault it is Harry's parents were first selected for death, is saying, "You have kept him alive so that he can die at the right moment? You have been raising him like a pig for slaughter." ...... He's walking slowly towards a crowd of the tall, black-cloaked soul-eaters, whispering to himself, "I am about to die." ...... He's standing still in front of the snake man and a crowd of followers, hands by his sides. The same unstoppable curse that killed his parents is an instant away from hitting him._
> 
> Over and over again, Harry's mind was assaulted by these and other images until finally they slowly started to fade away. 

"Hurry up, boy!" shouted Uncle Vernon from the kitchen. "What are you doing, checking for letter bombs?"

The dizziness was subsiding also, and Harry found himself lying on the floor by the front door, with the bill and the postcard crumpled in one hand, and the strange terrible letter in the other. He still had no clear idea what the contents were about, but he was very sure he wanted nothing to do with it.


End file.
